74
AN GAODHAL.
YORKE'S LECTURES (Continued)
Thus the modern na n-iongan, of the
finger nails is the lineal descendant of the mid¬
dle Irish innaningan. But you may
urge in Latin and in Greek neuter nouns end in a
nasal and so do most of the accusatives singular,
if therefore, your contention is correct, we
should find these forms eclipsing too. Very fair
for a test, and we will see how our theory stands
it. The neuter gender existed in middle Irish, let
us see how it affects words. Dliged,
modern dlighe, is a neuter noun and an
'intricate law' in Middle Irish appears
as dliged n-doraid; again the Latin ac¬
cusative virum alium (another man)
appears as fer n-aile and regem mirab¬
ilem, wonderful king, as rig n-amra,
which prove our theory for the accusa¬
tive singular, while that it was not peculiar to the
genitive plural of the article to recover the
h, is shown by such locutions as co
mathib fer n-ulad, with the nobles of
the men of the Ulronians. * It is not
necessary now I think to show that in
Rule V., go is the modern form of con¬
da of dain, the relative, a of san etc to
be able to make the assertion that
wherever we find this kind of eclipsis
occuring the eclipsing word had at
some period of its history a nasal ter¬
mination.
However in grammar there is such a thing as
analogy. Words that seem to be built alike have
a tendency to change alike. Hence in
declension athair follows cathair in some
cases, and besides the usual plural
aithre, we have the false inflection aith¬
reacha; and in eclipsis the same ten¬
dency obtains, but not to any great ex¬
tent, thus ocht eclipses only by the ana¬
logy of seacht, which it is near in posi¬
tion and like in sound, while Win¬
disch gives the unaspirated form oct
as also eclipsing. In Middle Irish there were other
cases of this false analogy but as they do not ex¬
it now I will not mind mentioning them. I have
not spoken of Rule III. which concerns the eclips¬
ing power of the prepositional case of the article,
because all that can be better treated hereafter it
aspiration.
We have seen now whence comes
the nasal before vowels, d. g, and b; it
remains to examine what became of it
before the other consonants.
It is a strange fact that in Old Irish
there was no p. Wherever it occurs,
it occurs in borrowed words and in a few of uncer¬
tain origin. Even in borrowed terms it sometimes
disappears, thus casc, represents the
Latin Pascha. Hence we will divide
the remaining consonants into two
classes (1) n, m, r, l. (2) c, t, f, s. -1.)
Since we have no instance in the mod¬
ern language of n appearing before
either of these groups, we shall have
to consult the ancient tongue. There
e. g. we find the modern expression
na rún, of the secrets, appearing as na¬
rrún, showing that in nan-rún the n be¬
came assimilated to the other liquid r,
and the same is true of n, m, l. But in
old MSS., where all was wearisome hand-work,
brevity was one of the scribe's virtues, hence we are
not surprised that they dropped the apparently use¬
less double letter, and so in those MSS, we find
na rún as well as narrún, and this is
the form which obtains in Modern Irish
The assertion therefore at page 91 that "all conso¬
nants can be eclipsed except l, m, n, r."
will no longer appear strange to you.
2 As I shall treat this second class
viz c, t, f, s, below in the paragraphs
on flattening and t-eclipsis, I shall here
speak of them only in connection with the nasal.
In Modern Irish you know no n appears
before these letters nor yet in ancient Irish. We
therefore must suppose that it has fared before
them as it fared before l, m, n, r, i.e.,
was assimilated and dropped We
know that there was in Irish a tend¬
ency to drop the nasal before these let¬
ters, thus we find Old Irish bréc a lie,
corresponding to the Sanskrit bhramca
dét a tooth, for Latin dent-em Skr.
dant-a and so on. Therefore we may conclude
with some show of probability that what has happ¬
ened to the n in the middle of words has
also happened to it in the beginning,
and thus the Middle Irish, na ceart,
stands for na nceart — na cceart, as the
case of narrun points to assimilation
before dropping, as Windisch observes. §97.
To sum up now all that I have stated about na¬
sal eclipsis. —
I. In Modern Irish words have lost many nasal
terminations, which terminations reappear under
certain circumstances.
II. before b, d, g, and vowels, it ap¬
pears as n (m).
III. Before n, m, r, l, it is assimilated
and disappears leaving no mark in the written lan¬
guage.
IV. Before c, t, f, s, assimilated and
dropped in the modern orthography.
* Windisch, ib, of, Dr Joyce p 114, No 42nd Ex
